Ending January in Style 1-31-2016

It has been damn cold here the last two weeks. All of those knucklehead snakes should be deep in the ground and life cycles should be starting to right themselves. We had snow. It has become more or less an actual winter. That isn't to say that on warmer days, we stay in the house. We need to get out into nature to keep our legs and our souls from atrophy. It was supposed to hit the high 40s on January 31st, so we figured we go out and look for some birds. Close to home... staying in Suffolk County.

We flipped plenty of rocks and logs, hoping for a stray Redback or something but the ground was clearly too frozen; ice was still under many of the logs. We saw a few birds, I added two on the year and we walked along the edge of a brook, marveling at the work a local beaver population had done.


The sun had been up for the couple of hours that we were out. It was plenty warm. We said we wouldn't be surprised if one of our snake buddies was poking a head out. But no... that seriously wasn't going to happen. Still, we looked around.

I was down in the gully where I had spied a couple of Water Snakes earlier in the month. No, nothing was out. Until I heard Andrea yell "Nerodia".

Huh? Where?

She was coming out of a hole under a log that we have long suspected was a den entrance. And exit.

She was large and dusty, but we recognised her from late last year.

Her scar was familiar... check out last years November 27th post.

Andrea got closer to snap a shot with her phone and she (Big E. Smalls, the snake) backed right in.


And that is how we ended January of 2016.